


Hit And Miss

by tielan



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Pick-Up Lines, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 05:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2375984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maria is no stranger to being hit on while out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hit And Miss

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt from ladyscribe: _Steve/Maria, the one with the sharks_.

Maria is no stranger to being hit on while out.

She’s learned to take it in her stride. As well as to find different ways of making guys miss.

 

“Hey, you want a drink?”

“Does it come with obligatory conversation?”

“Huh?”

 

“What’s a lovely lady like you doing all alone?”

“Waiting for my next victim to proposition me.”

“What?”

 

“Want me to show you a good time, baby?”

“Only if it involves you going away and leaving me alone.”

“No need to be a bitch!”

 

Her wine glass slides an inch across as a hand slaps down on the bar top in front of her. A tiny wave of wine builds up against the lip of the glass, breaks over the edge, and spatters across polished wood. Maria rears back as the owner of the hand stumbles into her personal space. Well-tanned skin, broad shoulders, a whiff of soap, and a grimace on his well-defined features.

“Sorry about that, m—ma’am.” He eases back, out of her personal space. “I was pushed.”

Her instinctive retort dies on her lips at the apology. She glances over his shoulder at the businessmen who jostled him into her lap, and shrugs. “No harm done. It’s crowded.”

“Is it usually this bad? Do you usually come here?” He glances over at the bartender and lifts a finger to indicate that he’s ready to order when she’s done serving the current customer.

“One night only. I’m staying in the hotel.”

“Alone?” Then he pauses. “Sorry, that’s kind of rude.”

The bartender comes by and he orders a whiskey, neat. Maria sips her wine and considers him – the almost hawkish profile, the soft sweep of brown hair, the way he sees her staring and half-smiles.

“What?”

“Asking if I’m alone _is_ kind of rude.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“However, for the record, yes, I _am_ staying here alone.”

“I wasn’t...” He pauses, as though rethinking the truth of his words, then sighs. “I’m _really_ no good at this.” 

“And yet I’m still here.” Maria smiles as he gives her a long, measuring look as the bartender brings him his drink. “Are _you_ here alone?”

“Sort of,” he glances back towards a corner of the room, and winces a little. “My buddy seems to have deserted me.”

“Wingman?”

He looks at her. “Wingman? You mean—?”

“Wingman. A friend who helps you pick up a date. Although,” she adds, “I also mean Wilson.”

The face programmed into the mask-mesh looks nothing like Captain America, yet the expression is pure Steve Rogers – amusement, resignation, rueful acceptance. “He says my flirting needs work.”

Maria grins. “It does.”

Steve sighs as she takes another drink of her wine. “So what gave me away?”

“One: you apologised. Two: you started to say my name before you caught yourself and changed it to ‘ma’am’. And three: you washed before you came out.”

He stares at her. “I  _washed_ before I came out?”

Maria holds his gaze a moment longer, then leans in over his collar. She takes a long deep breath where the scent and heat of him rises like a drug off his skin and murmurs, “I can smell your particular soap.”

When she draws back, he’s watching her, very still. She lifts one eyebrow in challenge, and his tension relaxes into a smile. "I wondered why Natasha kept sending me deodorant."

This time, she laughs. That sounds _exactly_ like Romanoff - both the gift, and the lack of explanation. 

Steve is smiling. "Now I wish I wasn’t wearing this.” He indicates the mesh-mask over his face.   


Surprised by the non-sequitur, it takes Maria a moment to ask, “Why not?”

He looks up and his gaze rests on her mouth for a few seconds, during which time Maria finds it really hard to breathe. Then he looks her in the eye again and just smiles.

 

Maria is no stranger to being hit on while out.

This is the first time she hasn’t wanted the guy to miss.

**Author's Note:**

> It started off being about sharks and minnows and guys not realising which Maria was, but that wasn't working, so it just became about pickup lines and Steve chatting Maria up.


End file.
